The office of First-Year Experience at BYU hosted its First-Year Story Slam on Oct. 8.
Unlike any other story slam though, this story slam studied “the neuroscience of belonging.”
First-year BYU students gathered to hear upperclassmen share stories from their first years at BYU.
Jaycelin Eyre, a storyteller and member of the research team, said hearing these stories can show freshmen they're not alone in facing challenges.
“We know that storytelling and story listening, both on the part of the teller and the hearer, are absolutely vital to a sense of belonging,” Eyre said.
BYU professor Jamin Rowan had the idea for a slam after teaching a class called “the art of transformative storytelling.” He and his co-professor Mat Duerden hosted a smaller slam for their class. Rowan and Duerden decided to take the event to the whole campus when the class ended.
“Both of us thought we just can’t let this be the last time that we do this,” Rowan said.
The idea for a story slam evolved when linguistics professor Dan Dewey heard about the project. Dewey was curious about discovering how storytellers’ and listeners’ brainwaves synced up during a story.
A research team fitted four of the eight storytellers and four audience members with special caps to measure brain activity.
They were specifically interested in how brainwaves sync up when the storyteller introduces a need, complication or insight. Eyre said their early findings suggest that brainwaves sync up most when a storyteller expresses vulnerability.
“We can literally read it on the charts that it contributes to a sense of belonging and we hope to find out more about that,” Eyre said.
The office of First-Year Experience anticipates hosting several more story slams throughout the year.